Poor Bihar’s poor: getting poorer? Patna:time for reality check, Bihar? Time to note the ironies of democracy, development and transparency! As we develop and go up the staircase, there are many who don’t simply get left behind but are actually made to climb down to make place for the upward mobile. Similarly, as a society develops, it may get more corrupt – development means opportunities! Equal opportunity for the clean and the corrupt! And similarly again, more transparency may mean more corruption – money that doesn’t show on excel sheets and never will. You... 

Some dark truths: Bhains Diara in Katihar has a school to teach the art of begging!   Katihar: some time ago, during an anti-Maoists drive in Chhatisgarh, the security forces chanced upon a tribal settlement in the Abujmal area that did not officially exist. The tribals in the village had never heard of or seen a motor vehicle or a train till the combing operation gave them a surprise of their life time. It is almost as if a forgotten people came into contact with civilization for the first time in their lives turning an anti-Maoists drive into an explorer’s journey deep into the ...